48 NOTES AND NEWS. 



Podiceps cristatus. Great Crested Grebe. I saw one on 



Malharn Tarn on June 7th, 1895, and heard its guttural kraw, 

 but obtained no evidence of its breeding there. 



Podiceps cornutus. Sclavonian Grebe. Mr. Foster has 



a female obtained near Nether Lodge in Ling Gill Beck, a few- 

 years ago. 



Tachybaptes fluviatilis. Little Grebe or Dabchick. 



Numerous on the Deeps and on Malham Tarn, at any rate in 

 spring and winter. Nests at Malham, and in 1886 eggs were 

 taken from a deserted Coot's nest at New Houses Tarn. I have 

 several times noticed several in close company on the Ribble 

 in March. Out on Malham Tarn this bird does not behave 

 with its usual shyness, and its ways and noises may be easily 

 observed. Besides its ordinary tinkling call-note of ' Kee, Kee/ 

 it utters a loud whinnying cry. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



From Mr. J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S., we have received a reprint of his paper in the 

 Norfolk and Norwich Transactions ' On the Recent Abundance of the Little Auk 

 {Mergiiius alle % Linn.) in Norfolk/ in which he records the occurrence of 285 

 examples. Much Yorkshire information is also included, especially the observations 

 of Mr. W. J. Clarke near Scarborough, where 'thousands' were seen. 



From Prof. Herdman, D.Sc, F.R.S., we have a reprint of his presidential 

 address to the British Association's Zoological Section at Ipswich this year. The 

 sub-titles ' Oceanography/ ■ Bionomics,' and ■ Aquicuiture ' indicate to the initiated 

 in technical terms the scope of the paper, which is full of interest, much of it 

 arising from the Professor's own Liverpool Bay observations. 



Further notes from the Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition will be of 

 interest. Writing to Mr. B. Sturges Dodd, concerning dredging for marine life, 

 Mr. Harry Fisher mentioned that a couple of dredges had been constructed as 

 suggested, but that • Dredging will be impossible for some time to come. It will 

 be done from a whale-boat only, probably not before the *' Windward : ' leaves — 

 she will go immediately the ice opens. Until that time we cannot use a whale- 

 boat probably. Besides that we shall have to be cautious in this neighbourhood, 

 the sea-bottom being strewn with boulders large and small.' Mr. Fisher also 

 writes: 'The ice is so very difficult to understand, we have no idea when it will 

 open. A gale of wind from the North might open it after blowing continuously 

 for three days, perhaps less, but no sunshine will open it. We are within half a 

 mile of the spot where the M Eira " went down in 1882, and about fifty miles from 

 the spot where the Austrians abandoned the "Tegetthoff." No other vessels have 

 ever been here. If you receive a letter from me it will be one of the first ever sent 

 from F. J. L. The crews of the "Eira" and "Tegetthoff" both returned in 

 whale-boats by Novaia Zemiya. The botany of this region is as far as I know, 

 rather better than may be supposed, but really I have had no opportunity to 

 investigate it. . . . Our lowest reading of thermometer now in February, 

 viz. — 55* F., our highest is to-day -f 33 F. Birds abound here, but species are 

 few. Forty Bears have been killed — some Walrus— only one Seal. We cannot 

 expect Seal until the ice opens out. Foxes' tracks we see, but not the animal. 

 I followed one up the cliffs, where she had been, with a very small cub, after the 

 birds. I found her hole, but not the fox. One of the crew saw a family a few 

 weeks ago.' 



Naturalist, 



